File: make.info,  Node: Loading Objects,  Prev: Guile Integration,  Up: Extending make

12.2 Loading Dynamic Objects
============================

     Warning: The 'load' directive and extension capability is
     considered a "technology preview" in this release of GNU Make.  We
     encourage you to experiment with this feature and we appreciate any
     feedback on it.  However we cannot guarantee to maintain
     backward-compatibility in the next release.  Consider using GNU
     Guile instead for extending GNU Make (*note The 'guile' Function:
     Guile Function.).

   Many operating systems provide a facility for dynamically loading
compiled objects.  If your system provides this facility, GNU 'make' can
make use of it to load dynamic objects at runtime, providing new
capabilities which may then be invoked by your makefile.

   The 'load' directive is used to load a dynamic object.  Once the
object is loaded, a "setup" function will be invoked to allow the object
to initialize itself and register new facilities with GNU 'make'.  A
dynamic object might include new 'make' functions, for example, and the
"setup" function would register them with GNU 'make''s function handling
system.

* Menu:

* load Directive::              Loading dynamic objects as extensions.
* Remaking Loaded Objects::     How loaded objects get remade.
* Loaded Object API::           Programmatic interface for loaded objects.
* Loaded Object Example::       Example of a loaded object